Detroit Tigers players watch from the dugout late in the ninth inning during Game 6 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 5-2 to advance to the World Series. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

BOSTON — The final gasp of breath seeped out with a ragged gasp, as the clock ticked past midnight.

Time of death: 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013.

The Detroit Tigers’ season had expired suddenly.

Much too young, really.

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When Boston closer Koji Uehara threw the final strike of the 2013 American League Championship Series past Jose Iglesias to end Game 6, and his Red Sox teammates rushed the field in delirious celebration, it was as sudden as a flatline on an emergency room EKG.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet. I know it’s over, but it hasn’t hit me. I’m in shock, because of team we have. We have a really good ballclub, and just made some mistakes here and there, and they took advantage of. That’s tough to do the postseason,” said Torii Hunter, who seemed to still be in disbelief an hour after the game.
“Oh, yeah. I’m shocked. I’m stunned right now, that the season’s over. We got a great ballclub. The pitching staff, the offense. I know Miggy (Miguel Cabrera) was hurt, but he’s still a threat.
“Just couldn’t get it done. Baseball is a crazy game, a game of failure. We did that. That’s why we’re going home. We failed.”

And, with that end, their hopes of living up to the excessively high expectations — “World Series or bust” — painted on them by the fans, by the media and just as often by themselves, died an unfulfilled death, as well.

Now, all that’s left is the postmortem autopsy to discern the reasons for expiration.

Like they had in the three previous seasons — in Game 6 of the 2011 ALCS in Texas, and Game 4 of the 2012 World Series on their own home field — some players stayed for a moment in the dugout, seeming to be attempting to suspend belief of what was happening before their eyes, disbelieving that Boston’s frenetic celebration was real, was what they thought it was.

Some did not.

“I was there for a minute,” Justin Verlander said. “I’m not a big fan of watching the other team celebrate.”

“No one wants to (leave). It’s a painful thing. It’s painful every single year. Doesn’t matter if you don’t make the postseason, or don’t make it all the way to the World Series. If you don’t win it all, it’s always painful, because you can always find ways to think of what you should’ve done. That’s the thing that makes it numb tonight,” Max Scherzer said.
“We can relive all our mistakes, but at the end of the day, I think we’re going to look back at this team and realize how good it was.”

That will be the saddest part of the funeral and obituary for the 2013 Tigers.

They passed too soon.

And before living up to their vast potential.

“Obviously, pretty tough,” Alex Avila said. “Definitely a roller-coaster of emotions. When you go from trying to give everything you have, in the intensity of the postseason, to being done, it’s definitely very difficult.”

A good team that won a division title, and another heart-stopping, five-game AL Division series. A team that may be remembered more for the performance of its stars — especially if Scherzer wins the Cy Young and Cabrera repeats as MVP — when it DIDN’T count as much, in the regular season, than when it did, in the playoffs.

“This is a crushing blow. It hurts. When I was in Minnesota, the ALCS, the posteason, we were good enough to win the Central, but other than that, we couldn’t get past the Yankees,” Hunter said. “But this ballclub, I just knew that we had everything it took to get to the World Series. Baseball is such a crazy game, anything can happen.”

That’s what makes it so different from previous playoff runs.

In 2006, when they’d put together the most improbable season imaginable, just three seasons after a 100-loss campaign, no one was that disappointed when the postseason came crashing down in a sloppy World Series.

In 2011, when the Tigers finally made it back to the postseason, having finally won an AL Central title, the playoff run eventually ground to an unceremonious halt, dragged to a stop by its own injury-filled inertia, and no one was all that surprised when it ended with a 15-5 demolition in the final game.

Even last year, when the expectations were much, much higher, there was never really a feeling that the Tigers were REALLY ever in that World Series after Pablo Sandoval’s Game 1 home run barrage, now was there? The unceremonious end, with that indelible image of Sergio Romo striking out Cabrera looking, was just the final indignity in an embarrassing showing.

But this time ... this was heart rending because the Tigers have every reason to believe they should have won.

And every reason to be disappointed.

The Tigers have a World Series-caliber roster.

A World Series-class payroll.

And everybody in the organization thought that this was a better squad than the one that actually went to a World Series last year.

“I mean, when you get to this point in the year, the expectations are always high. The expectations were high coming into the spring, about as high as they could possibly be. But once you get to the playoffs, it’s a grind,” Verlander said. “You can’t say, ‘OK, we’re going to make it to the World Series.’ You can’t just say that, and end up there. I mean, you gotta play the games.”

They did. They lost.

Now, they’re not going back.

“In my opinion, these were the two best teams in the American League, and it was one helluva series. Obviously, it’s unfortunate for us that it didn’t go our way,” Verlander said.
“But it was a grudge match.”

It was a grudge match that ended with one final body slam, namely Shane Victorino’s grand slam in the seventh inning. The Red Sox became the first MLB team to ever hit two grand slams in the seventh inning or later in a single postseason series. And both were defining moments.

The first, by David Ortiz in Game 2, turned the series on a dime.

Victorino’s sucked the air out of it.

That missed opportunity will be mourned for a while. It will be a bit before the Tigers can look at this with anything less than disappointment.

“Probably when the World Series is over. Then you can start appreciating the good things in 2013. Right now, you’re just numb to it. When you lose a game like this, you’re always extremely disappointed. You just replay every play in your mind: ‘What could I have done differently? What could I have done differently?’ That’s where, as professionals here, we try to learn from our mistakes, try to get better. Because hopefully we are in this situation again,” Scherzer said.
“Hopefully we can execute next time, and be the ones celebrating because we’re going to the World Series.”

They’re just not that team this time.

It’s over.

Much too soon.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.